when he said jack kennedy was a friend of mine, you're no jack kennedy. 8 out of 10 i think at the time said lloyd benson won that one. what happened three weeks later, the dukakis benson campaign went down in a landslide. generally the argument is that debates can only punctuate trends, they can't reverse that, i'm not so sure of that. but i think you are quite right, a big screw-up could, and a big-screw-up on obama's side, you don't want to see biden screw up so bad it reinforces an image this ticket ain't the ticket. barring that, it probably won't move the needle that much. we will see. ashley: thanks so much neil. don't miss our coverage hosted by neil cavuto at 8:00 p.m. eastern. it's going to be a lot of fun. we always wait to see what mr. biden may say. tracy: we do. ashley: even though he may not mean to say it, it sometimes come out, doesn't it? tracy: there's neil's fabulous commentary after. he's the energizer bunny. i love watching him. oil closing at $92.07 a barrel. that's a gain of nearly 1% based on what's going on overseas. and coming up, regulation nation again. jpmo